====== Measuring performance ======
In general, to obtain useful information from binaries, certain compile flags should be used.

===== Perf =====
For using perf, one should compile OOFEM with the flag ''-fno-omit-frame-pointer''
First record a session using

''perf record -g ./oofem -f myinputfile.in''

which will generate a perf.data file.

Then you can visualize the results in several ways. A good, simple to understand method is to use [[http://code.google.com/p/jrfonseca/wiki/Gprof2Dot|Gprof2Dot]] to generate a complete callgraph:

''perf script | ./gprof2dot.py -f perf | dot -Tsvg  -o output.svg''

Or use the ncurses program

''perf report -G %%--%%sort comm,dso''

Perf has very small overhead, but only does statistical sampling.


//Users of perf will likely first need to turn off the restrictions before they are able to run ''perf record'' as normal users://

''sudo sh -c %%"%%echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/kptr_restrict%%"%%''
===== Callgrind =====
Callgrind is a tool in valgrind, and should only be used on medium. This has a huge overhead, so expect OOFEM to run over a hundred times slower through valgrind.
Simply run

''valgrind --tool=callgrind ./oofem -f myinputfile.in''

and you will produce a new file named ''callgrind.out.123456'' where the numbers at the end are randomized.
Open this file in Kcachegrind to visualize the results.